Cut a live wire - will rain cause fire?
Question:Okay, there's this motion detected thing on the outside of my house that clicks loudly (so I can hear it thru the siding of the house) right over my head every 5 seconds. And it's right beside my bed. I got so fed up because it's been making sleep impossible and went out with a pair of scissors and cut the 2 wires, one fully, and one halfway. It caused a little explosion but only damaged the tips of the scissors. The thing doesn't work anymore (thank God) but I'm afraid the rain may cause a fire. Will wrapping with tape suffice? Is there something else I should do?
Answers:
There is a remote possibility that it could start a fire, but it is more likely to do so in the dry, than in the rain. In the rain it is most likely to hurt someone.
1. Find the breaker that the thing is on, and turn it off.
2. Go out and peal the wires apart
3. Either cap them with a wire nut (which I bet you do not have one of) or Bend them back on themselves and wrap throroughly with electrical tape. Be sure that they will remain seperate by then taping the wires back together in a manner that will make it impossible for the two ends to ever meet again.
4. Weatherproof this messy ball somehow, like a baggie duct taped to the exterior wall, or up under the eave.
Do not cut live wires anymore. Many people are handy, ask one of them to show you what to do.
you need help but not electrical
leave it alone and call an electrician
Okay, you're lucky to be alive. That little explosioncould have done the same thing to you that it did to the scissors. The thing doesn't work anymore because you tripped a breaker switch or fuse. Rain will not start a fire at this point, because there is no power. If you own the home, go buy a new fixture that is quieter. If you rent, call the landlord and have it fixed. Tape the ends, then turn on the breaker switch. there may be other things in the home that are on the circuit with the light that need energy. (refrigerator, computer etc.)
most likely you blew the fuse. Therefore rain will not cause a fire. Before you replace the fuse or reset the breaker, finish cutting the wires, put marretts on both of them, problem solved.
those motion lights are a few amps-it takes a fraction of that to stop your heart. At this point i wold sleep through a train wreck if i was you.
Turn the breaker off that supplies power to these lights and tape it off so others dont accidentally turn it on. thoroughly tape it up so it cannot contact anything to cause another arc. Call an electrician to relocate the lights or the sensor so you dont have another rage attack.
I guess you dont have a clock that ticks loudly either huh?
Good Lord, thankfully it wasn't your hot water heater making noise, so you went and cut a 220 line. What you did was not only pretty silly, it was downright dangerous. Go check your breaker box or fuse box, you probably have either tripped a breaker or blown a fuse. If you have - do not reset the breaker or replace the fuse (not yet anyway). Remove the fixture, it's only held on by 2 screws anyway. Remove the wire nuts which hold the 2 white wires and the 2 black wires together, disconnect the green wire (that's the ground wire). Now, reinstall the wire nuts onto the white and black wires that didn't come from the fixture itself, wrap the wire nuts with electrical tape down to and past where you cut them so that there is no bare wire showing. NOW - reset the breaker or replace the fuse.
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